now could prepare themselves for the examinations. Attendance, however,
at the examinations cost a good deal. The candidate had to travel to the
local or provincial capital, and for the higher examinations to the
capital of the country; he had to live there for several months and, as
a rule, had to bribe the examiners or at least to gain the favour of
influential people. There were many cases of candidates becoming
destitute. Most of them were heavily in debt when at last they gained a
position. They naturally set to work at once to pay their debts out of
their salary, and to accumulate fresh capital to meet future
emergencies. The salaries of officials were, however, so small that it
was impossible to make ends meet; and at the same time every official
was liable with his own capital for the receipt in full of the taxes for
the collection of which he was responsible. Consequently every official
began at once to collect more taxes than were really due, so as to be
able to cover any deficits, and also to cover his own cost of
living--including not only the repayment of his debts but the
acquisition of capital or land so as to rise in the social scale. The
old gentry had been rich landowners, and had no need to exploit the
peasants on such a scale.

The Chinese empire was greater than it had been before the Mongol epoch,
and the population was also greater, so that more officials were needed.
Thus in the Ming epoch there began a certain democratization, larger
sections of the population having the opportunity of gaining government
positions; but this democratization brought no benefit to the general
population but resulted in further exploitation of the peasants.

The new "small gentry" did not consist of great families like the
original gentry. When, therefore, people of that class wanted to play a
political part in the central government, or to gain a position there,
they had either to get into close touch with one of the families of the
gentry, or to try to approach the emperor directly. In the immediate
entourage of the emperor, however, were the eunuchs. A good many members
of the new class had themselves castrated after they had passed their
state examination. Originally eunuchs were forbidden to acquire
education. But soon the Ming emperors used the eunuchs as a tool to
counteract the power of gentry cliques and thus to strengthen their
personal power. When, later, eunuchs controlled appointments to
government pos